ikaruga24

Not disputing that mate, in my country the Germans have a nasty reputation for reliability. However, i am not in my country and each country has a certain way of having their own quirks on those things. Believe me when i say that i would love to get the Japanese car but after the ordeal i went through trying to find someone to properly be able to fix the issue (even though in the end i chose against it due to cost) i am torn to have to go to the German side just so i can have a choice.

And it's finished, the mechanic who can actually work on the problem quoted me a price 1200 quid for a new car computer and labor plus anything that might come across for parts during the gearbox work as well so the actual cost could well go double that. From his overall experience he would say that problems like this come out from excessive neglect due to being immobile for more than 12 months and this is a killer for any car no matter what and especially so for automatic cars. In light of that i have decided to give my vehicle for part exchange for something else and i haven't made this decision lightly. Second, and this is even more bothersome for me, i have been talking with a lot of people all this time and everyone tells me to never look anything else but the German brands for the UK market. Anything else and you risk bad support network, lack of knowledge on how to work on a car and other types of inconvenient crap you don't want to get caught in. I have no idea how true that is of course but as most said, get a BMW, audi, VW and you are all set with peace of mind even if something does go wrong.

Yes with the machine. Manual changes don't happen past 3rd gear.

Sorry to quote you all the time Lina but i feel like we are friends now 😂. Update on the issue, i got it to some recommended auto gearbox specialists that also have very good general testimonials. From what they have found is that my cars fault codes should not be there as the car is flawless when it comes to the metrics and health checks they performed. One thing that seems peculiar that makes them think it's the cars computer at fault is the fact that the gear changes don't happen because there is no command from the computer to do so. It's not that the gears are stuck or anything, it's because the computer gives the command up until the third and back but then it just doesn't give any commands for upwards of the third gear. Their advice on the matter is to ask for a new computer from Lexus which now comes a question. What computer? Main computer? Specific ECU? The entire thing? What costs are we talking about if that's the case because it doesn't sound cheap though to be fair i was waiting to hear about a faulty gearbox and a piercing cost to replace it but thank God no. Still this does sound like another costly fix from the other direction, am i wrong?

After all this time i got myself into bull**** territory. Over three weeks in the shops only to be called today and come to collect it with the issue as they can't fix it. I am quoting "the car is exactly the same as you first brought it in". The electrician tried to fix it but it seems the gear problem persists after the oil change. I am now certain they did nothing but the bare minimum for it. Didn't pay anything other than 30 quid for the electrician, time wasted, no work done, still in square one. Second garage that has no clue... I have a few more options but i am angry...

One more update on the matter. The car is still in the mechanic. That's 3 weeks now fully closed in the shop. After trying stuff they came to one maybe possible solution, that the car needs a full Rebalancing as they can't seem to pinpoint what can possibly be the issue. Mechanically is sound, the solenoid valve issue is no more, battery is fine though not at 100% health (it's at 85% according to them which is vastly different than what Halfords said being at 40%), measurements from the sensors seem to read correctly and the car seems to work fine for those five minutes without the check VSC comes on again. They asked me if i had done anything to the car to which i replied i literally bought it some weeks ago and it was fine for the first ten days or so, then we changed tyres and 20 minutes after the change the check VSC came on and that's the story. Now the good news is that i don't owe anything for the work so far but i am starting to get both worried and desperate as i have spent a small fortune moving around with commute not to mention time wasted. How long would you allow a garage to keep your car for checks before you decided it is time to try another one here in the UK?

Quick update on the matter. One week in the shop now. Apparently the issue is not mechanical but electronic in nature. Some little computer, one of the ecus or other little electronic/electric maggafin. I am starting to suspect that it's something really easy to fix/replace but obviously they won't do it for that stupid little amount and will throw in labor hours. Again i can't be sure but here comes next week and see when i get a phone call.

😭😭 Then i already know that i paid for things i shouldn't have and just needed to go straight to Lexus because even if i paid 150 for the check (ridiculous price for an inspection) it would still be at least accurate and no fiddling about to find out what might be wrong with it. Obviously i wouldn't go with "get new gearbox" but i would immediately go for the gear work to some mechanic that can do this from the beginning. Instead i went through all stupid hoops (and paid for them) for a grand total of nothing. Time wasted, money wasted, no results and still not resolved. Hopefully this garage will be able to sort things out and not just beat about the bush trying to extract money for no existent or speculated issues.

OK, i guess i have a lot to learn in this country on who to trust on things. Dealership-stealership, Halfords - Halfrauds...why do i think this is not the extent of it? It's so hard, especially when you are new to that country and try to wade through the bull****. Now you give me things to think about everyone i have visited so far and whether the money i paid were unneeded...

The funny thing is that the codes regarding the solenoids cleared after the fluid change. Technical said he drove it for a while with no issues and parked it all fine. Then I went, turned the engine on to leave the place and there was the lights back on and into limp mode. Now as i said it feels a bit more powerful on the pull than before but it's still having traction control off, engine and triangle orange lights on and of course the Check VSC message on the dash. This Monday i have an appointment for this but i won't forget to tell them that Halfords found out that the battery itself is at 40% health and any work to be done needs to be done with a healthy battery. Maybe this is the only thing really needed or has needed since the start.

Hmmm, then that means this is my next stop. If that is the case then 40% battery health pretty much means no need to go forward.

Update: I took it to the technicians today for the work. I just collected it and the lights came back on as i was leaving the garage. I can feel a change to the car, first it feels like limp mode is is no longer engaged though as it has much more pull (same as before it went limp mode the first time) but with the lights on it still refuses to go over the third gear. The diagnostic this time had the solenoids cleared but has something completely crazy... Something about EV power. I know for a fact that my car is NOT a hybrid. Could this have to do with the battery and its 40% health we discovered with the other garage? I forgot to tell this one about the battery. On Monday i have another appointment with them to check this more thoughtfully. Should we just put on a new battery for tests sake before we even begin to get to grips with anything else?

Privately. Car dealer would have had a warranty and i would talk to him directly. I did ask for the seller to be sincere and he told me apart from new tyres and the big service coming the car is absolutely fine. It's been sitting there for a while as he has now bought his mom the new version of the same car. That's about it. Now you might say that this was foolish to take his word for it but i had driven it for about half hour before purchase and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Smooth gear box changes, turned on like a champ, sharp steering, electronics and other things worked fine. It looked and felt proper and since i really needed the car i thought it to be a safe gamble to buy it with no further checks.

Right, no further need for trying anything with the puddles then. Now i am just waiting on the oil and items set (the one you showed me Lina) to be delivered to me and take the car to the workshop to perform the flushing and the solenoid check. Fingers crossed there is no excessive metal residues on the magnets and it will end the problem right there and then otherwise i will be stricken to have spent almost 5K total because i was an idiot to not have checked it with the dealer prior.

Limp mode is as explained by Lexus a system that works in conjunction with one another. One problem, whatever that may be, affects the whole system and because the car can't know anything specific it puts the car into limp mode for safety purposes. Now as i see my car is stuck up to 3rd gear and i have seen it go into 6th a few times so it has problems engaging the 4th and 5th which is where the underperforming or stuck solenoid codes come from to my understanding. Now I have ordered a full set of transmission fluid, filter and gasket and i will take it to someone local to do the flushing and check them both solenoids and hopefully this will give the car what it needs to function proper again.

Update, just drove to work. One funny thing is i did see it move to the 6th gear a couple of times. In general it stays up to the 3rd. I guess that's what solenoid C and D mean, 4th and 5th gear. I haven't tried sport mode to take it to the 6th myself. Does it make any difference for testing purposes?

Right! I hope this does not introduce something too complex for them to check out. As I see the diagram i think i understand why and how they could be stuck.

Yup that's pretty much the thing that has the code as well. "Solenoid 'c' performance or stuck off". Speaking about persuasion wouldn't the technicians that perform the flush and new fitting able to tell at a glance whether this will also need a "persuasion" along the process?

Holy crap, not turning on at all? That's a scary thing assuming your battery and spark plugs are good. The thing about limp mode as it was explained to me by Lexus is that the entire system works in conjuction with one another so if something goes wrong like the Check VSC which disables the TSC (hence the TSC light being on), check engine light on with the exclamation mark and thus the car goes into a safe mode to prevent gear changes and limit speed to stop further possible damage as it does not "understand" the type of issue you might be having. That to me makes sense as it just puts everything under one umbrella. By the way we have resented and cleared the codes twice but they come back instantly the moment you go over 20 M/h.

I have included the codes that come into the diagnostic concerning solenoid C and D so we are talking about a couple of them in the other topic about automatic transmission. The thing that is making me think that the solenoid has possibly developed soot from the inside is that the car was stationary for months (how many i don't know) before i purchased it. Again i am an idiot for not taking it to someone to thoroughly check it before i agreed to buy it but i suspect neglected servicing or the bare minimum as the seller bought the new version for his mother. So yes, limp mode does not limit my speed in a hard manner but it operates no more than 3rd gear which means i must keep it at 30 M/h for good use and economy. My beef with this now is that i refuse to believe that the previous owner did not know about this and just decided to sell it before he needed to do anything on it any longer.

That is some great info to ask the garage directly in regards to their side of the work done by them. The site that has all these parts (buycarparts.co.uk) is pretty stacked with options. There is also an app they have called AUTODOC that you can look as well that has a lot going for it. I am using the car in a daily easy country route to go to work. Round-trip 22 miles, no traffic, can't drive faster than 35 miles/h anyway as it's in limp mode and doesn't go above 3rd gear so to maintain fuel economy it's about 2.5 to 2.8MRPM which translates between 30 and 35M/h.

The shop is this one, it appears legit though you can never tell. https://www.jaautoscrawley.co.uk/crawley.html Thank you for the information about the oil set. I am also looking at the buy car parts.co.uk and they also seem to have a whole host of items. I am confused as to how the items are being sold. Is it a set of oil + filter +gasket or do i buy these separately? Also, can i still drive my car (even in limp mode) or is it a big no no until the work is done?

Update. I did find a shop that can do the job but they can't seem to find where to get the fluid, gasket and filter for my model from their partners. Are there any online trusted shops where i could do the purchase of the items myself and then take the parts to them so they can do the job?

I can't thank everyone enough for this. This will at least put something on the table for me to work with and hopefully solve the issue once and for all until my next one whichever that may be but until then hopefully this one gives me at least a good couple of years of stress free motoring.

Thank you both. In case i can't find anyone else i will try to pursuade the main Lexus workshop to do it. By pushing it you don't mean anything drastic i hope, just being a nusance to keep me there for what i want and just be annoying? If it's not too much trouble do you remember the solenoid and ATF brands and/or models you got for yours?